What cues in alcohol advertisement, then, might engage the
reward circuitry and induce craving and motivation to drink?
Staiger and White (1991) suggested that particularly the sight
and smell of an alcohol-dependent patient’s favourite drink
induces cue reactivity. Thus, this study suggests that cue reactivity
due to alcohol-advertisement exposure may be specific
to the favourite brand of alcohol-dependent patients. A study
by Mucha et al. (2000) using the startle response, however,
suggests that specifically observing the preparation of drug
use (i.e., people preparing to drink and actual drinking behaviour
in the case of alcohol) may be particularly potent in evoking
a response. However, both of these studies did not use
alcohol advertisements as alcohol cues. Thus, in the present
study, it was tested whether observing drug-related cues such
as the preparation and actual use of the drug in alcohol advertisement
may be particularly potent in eliciting cue reactivity
among alcohol-dependent patients.